Educational Outreach

MusicaNova will seek out and establish collaborations with schools, colleges, and music education foundations, identified as a key success factor for growth in the Musica Nova, Inc. Strategic Plan. Such collaborations are a wonderful opportunity for two-way engagement, including the opportunity for professional musicians to provide instruction and insight, and for students to learn by performing in MusicaNova-sponsored concerts and artist development workshops.

MusicaNova’s Educational Outreach and Collaboration Keys to Success

MNO Visits the School

Our primary school engagement activity. MNO artists (conductor, soloist, composition fellow, orchestra members) visit a school to present a program or master class for a class visit, assembly, or selected group of students. As we grow, MNO may add repeatable programs for various grade levels that could be offered to several classes at a school or to multiple schools in a district.

The School Visits MNO

MNO invites partner school or organization musicians to attend orchestra rehearsals to see how a professional orchestra prepares for a concert. (Requires scheduling and coordination between MNO and the school.)

MNO encourages partner school and organization musicians, their families, and non-musician students to attend Orchestra and Young Artists Series concerts.

MNO and the School Collaborate on a Performance

Individual top-level partner school and organization solo musicians will be candidates for the Young Artists Series of concerts. Producing more than five such concerts per season is possible.

Multiple individuals or ensembles from partner schools or organizations, both instrumentalists and singers, will be candidates for public Collaborative Concerts, with outside marketing and publicity. Performers could be from one or more schools. (This was recently done with the ASU Guitar Ensembles.)

Individual instrumentalists will sit in with the orchestra and/or vocal ensembles will provide choral music as appropriate. This requires long-range planning with orchestra programming, as well as preparation of student resources. Student artists will need a high level of skill, and must commit to a rigorous preparation, rehearsal, and performance schedule for each concert.

History of MusicaNova’s Educational Outreach and Collaboration

In recent years, the MusicaNova Orchestra (MNO) has conducted a number of outreach activities with schools. MNO Conductor Warren Cohen, a MNO Composition Fellow, and an Orchestra or Young Artist concert soloist visit schools or other venues shortly before a concert to talk about their experiences as musicians and to demonstrate some of their playing. In recent seasons over 700 student and faculty lives have been touched on each visit day.

2016

April: Conductor Warren Cohen visited Tempe High School

2015

November: Conductor Warren Cohen and Composition Fellow and pianist Karalyn Schubring visited Tempe High School and Connolly Middle School. Over 700 total students and faculty in attendance.

April: Warren Cohen, conductor, Composition Fellow and pianist Tengku Irfan, and composer and violist Graham Cohen visited Tempe High School and Connolly Middle School. Over 700 total students and faculty in attendance.

2014

October: Warren Cohen, conductor, and David Kwak, violin: Tempe High School, October 2014 (Assembly, over 500 students and faculty in attendance)

November: Conductor Warren Cohen and violinist Elli Choi, violin visited Tempe High School and theArizona School for the Arts (ASA)

January: Ruth Slenczynska, piano: Master Classes, January 2012

2011

April: Violinist Adrian Anantawan gave an AZ-ASTA Master Class

Collaboration History

Many MNO events include collaboration with school musicians in orchestra or other concerts, including:

MNO is Artist-in-Residence at Tempe High School for the 2016-17 through 2018-19 school years, working with 150+ student musicians in the orchestra program, and inviting 65+ selected students to join the orchestra for two concert programs: